August 2007 Forecast
By Michael Bentley
August 3, 2007
8) Stardust
From director Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake), Stardust is a fantasy adventure where a man (Charlie Cox) makes a promise to his love interest (Sienna Miller) that he will retrieve a fallen star for her. This promise takes him on a magical and fantastic journey. Others stars in the cast include legend Robert De Niro, Claire Danes, and Michelle Pfeiffer. But most important is that critically-acclaimed writer Neil Gaiman wrote the novel which the movie is adapted from. Gaiman, of course, has written such works as The Sandman comic book series and several novels including Stardust and American Gods. The problem is, I don't expect many people outside of the world of nerds and geeks (and I say that in a good way) to have heard of Stardust. Expect a modest opening, but from there a lot of things will depend on how good the movie actually is and how strong the reviews and word-of-mouth are.
Opening weekend: $11 million.
9) Balls of Fury
Balls of Fury seems like it was intended to be a Will Ferrell (or possibly Ben Stiller) movie. It's an even-poorer man's Talladega Nights (or Dodgeball). Dan Fogler (School of Scoundrels) stars as a star in the glorious sport of ping-pong. He gets recruited by an FBI agent (George Lopez) and crazy Christopher Walken is ...blah blah... I doubt the plot matters all that much. You just need to know that "It's a huge comedy with tiny balls!"
Opening weekend: $11 million.
10) Hot Rod
As a married, almost 30-something, I realize I'm probably not in the target audience for Hot Rod but I have to say: this just plain looks stupid. And I don't mean stupidly hilarious. Some fans of Jackass will no doubt want to see this, and probably a few of the people who know who Andy Samberg is - enough to make it a small profit after all is said and done.
Opening weekend: $7 million.
11) Bratz
Starring in this month's edition of The End of the World is Upon Us is Bratz. Yes, Bratz. A movie based on the popular girl's toys. The "story" is about a quartet of girls/dolls who are really into fashion. Hooray!
Opening weekend: $6 million.
Just Under the Radar
El Cantante
Starring Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony this is based on a true story about a singer who was one of the forefathers of salsa music and helped bring it to the United States.
Resurrecting the Champ
In this drama from Rod Lurie (The Contender), Josh Hartnett is a young sports reporter who discovers that a motherf*cking homeless man (Samuel L. Jackson) is actually a former boxing champ who was believed to have passed away.
2 Days in Paris
No, this isn't about Paris Hilton. Julie Delpy (Before Sunrise; Before Sunset) write, directs and stars in this story about a French woman and her American friend (Adam Goldberg) who try to jump-start their relationship with a trip to Paris.
* Please note that all opening weekend estimates are preliminary and do not account for final screen counts.
Continued:
1
2
3
4
|
|
|
|
Print this column
